growing at the senior games

I've now participated in three years of the Senior Games, the Huntsman World Senior Games held each year in St. George. Such an event. 10,000 athletes from 50 countries. Men and women who are thriving and striving and inspiring. More about this later.

flowers for a veteran

I liked the first night of The War: A Ken Burns Film. It sure made me think a lot about my step-dad who died back in August. He was a Navy officer who fought in the South Pacific. He's written extensively about his life, including his years at war. I'm glad he got his take down on paper, but I wish I'd captured his voice and image on video. Mom's left his voice on their answering machine. I've heard it a couple of times lately. It's good to hear him again, even if it is recorded. I keep thinking how much he would enjoy this new series from Burns, but perhaps he's looking in on it even now from a considerably different vantage point. I hope so.

warming up

Emma Lou Thayne gave me this great tip for writing. Before you start to write something, just warm up. You don't just launch into a tennis match, you hit a few balls first. At swim meets there's always a warm up time. Swimming for 15 minutes and then sitting around for a few hours before you compete didn't seem all that useful. But I did it anyway. And today as I swam both at lunch and after work, I realized that the earlier event did help the later one. So now I'm using the blog to warm up. I'm going to be doing some other writing tonight, but for now I've at least got my fingers moving on the keyboard. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Yes, Truman, that's typing not writing. But even typing helps. The fingers do feel a little warmer. The words do flow a bit easier. Oh the magic of just transcribing the words you hear. It doesn't happen to me very often, but then again, how often do I take the time to warm up?

Wasatch Crest 2007

 

 

  Every year Dave and I try to hit the Wasatch Crest at least once. Last year we didn't make it, but on July 24, 2007 -- Utah Pioneer Day -- we again rode the crest. It was a beautiful, cloudy day. Hot in the valley, but just perfect on the mountaintop. While the big crowds watched the floats at the annual Days of '47 parade, we saw clouds floating by as we joined a parade of mountainbikers headed across the crest.

Sneak Peak of Chris Brown and Elmo Singing on Sesame Street

This is great. Check it out.

can't beat carmel and monterey

Got to help my daughter and son-in-law move from Monterey back to Salt Lake this past week. Fortunately there was some time for some sight-seeing. It's easy to see why Point Lobos draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. Such an incredible place. I'm glad we had a few hours to check it out.